Hello,
Welcome back to the second edition of the Nature Fix newsletter on Substack! It's great to have all of you on board. Hope you've been doing well these past couple of weeks.
Wolves
Lately, the hot topic in Colorado has been wolves. Proposition 114, which was on the ballot in 2020, allowed Colorado voters to decide on the reintroduction of wolves to the state. Five wolves were released in a remote part of Grand County on December 18th, 2023 with up to 40 more to be released in the following years. Right before the release two large cattle groups sued to stop the wolf release, but were denied.
While ranchers were part of the planning process for the reintroduction, they weren't notified until after the wolves were released, which caused consternation among ranchers and folks living in the area. Understandably, I would be miffed if I lived near the release site.
The Controversy
A week ago, I created an informational post for Tik Tok about the wolf introduction and the response was overwhelming. People were either vehemently for or intensely against having wolves back in the state. Many rural people voiced feelings of resentment toward urban people making decisions that directly affected rural folks. Urban folks blasted rural folks for not wanting to even consider co-existence. There was some name calling. I tried my best to steer the conversation away from unhelpful language and talk about the pain points in a sincere manner.
Some argue there's no space for wolves in the West anymore, despite Colorado's vast public lands and abundant elk herds. This raises questions about the future of conservation in the Anthropocene era – a topic ripe for extensive discussion, but I digress…
Many folks are afraid for their livestock, but the big sticking point when you get right down to it is elk & deer. People are afraid that the wolves will kill too many elk and deer and impact hunting seasons. Elk, deer and pronghorn indeed had a rough year last winter with many animals perishing in the heavy snow, not being able to find good places to graze. As a result Colorado Parks and Wildlife are reducing the number of hunting licenses for these animals this year. Hunting brings in $1.5 billion to Colorado each year and creates 20,000 jobs, second only to the ski industry. We need to be careful not to disrupt the balance too much or it could harm people's ability to make a living. Will wolves be a problem regarding hunting? It remains to be seen.
Help for Ranchers
Efforts are underway to assist ranchers and compensate them for any livestock losses. Colorado's reimbursement system is generous, offering up to $15,000 per killed animal. The hope is fair compensation will deter retaliatory killings, but its effectiveness remains to be seen.
Wolves are responsible for about 1% of unwanted cattle depredation in other states in the Rocky Mountains. Although that doesn’t seem like much, the depredation is usually concentrated in just a few areas and can be costly to ranchers. The Colorado measure initiating wolf reintroduction requires the state to “pay fair compensation” for “any losses of livestock caused by gray wolves”. When trying to figure out how this would work many questions came up about how a rancher can prove a cow was killed by a wolf. Other questions came up about intangible costs like cows gaining less weight due to stress by predators or having to pay someone to watch over livestock in the middle of the night.
To help fund the livestock reimbursement program a new license plate has been made available in Colorado. The plate is available to any applicant who pays a one-time $25 fee for the highway users tax fund, an annual $50 fee to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) cash fund that will help ranchers, and a one-time $25 fee for the Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account. You can find out more about this license plate at https://wolfplate.org/
Yellowstone Wolves not the Overnight Success Story We Thought
Proponents of wolf reintroduction often cite the apparent success of Yellowstone National Park's reintroduction program. However, a recent study from Colorado State University suggests the reality is more complex. While wolf reintroduction did reduce elk populations, it didn't lead to the ecosystem changes touted in viral social media posts. As with all things in nature, the reality is usually more nuanced than that and restoring apex predators like wolves is a slow process with long-term benefits for ecosystem health, but it's not a quick fix.
You can find the paper here, but I will summarize here.
Wolves were extirpated (killed) from Yellowstone NP in the 1920s along with other apex predators (bears, mountain lions). With the predator count down the elk population exploded, and they overgrazed the willow along streambeds which were dammed by beaver dams and aspen. Willows rely on slow moving water that beaver dams create and beaver rely on willow and aspen for food and dam creation. With their food gone, the beavers disappeared.
Now that the apex predators are back, the elk population has lowered but the willow hasn’t recovered in the way that ecologists had hoped. Areas where ecologists had intentionally built man-made beaver dams (beaver dam analogs) did show willow recovery, but without the help of the dams the willows did not recover on their own. Everything is complexly connected.
“When you disturb ecosystems by changing the makeup of a food web, it can lead to lasting changes that are not quickly fixed,” said Hobbs, lead author and professor emeritus with the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability and the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory. “We can’t rule out the possibility that the ecosystem will be restored over the next 40 years as a result of the return of apex predators. All we can be sure of is what’s observable now — the ecosystem has not responded dramatically to the restored food web.”
Though not a quick and easy solution, Hobbs said, restoration of apex predators produces healthier ecosystems in the long run.
“The conservation message is don’t lose them in the first place,” Hobbs said. “Keep the food web intact, because there’s not a quick fix for losing top predators from ecosystems.”
Wolves have been gone from the landscape in Yellowstone for almost 200 years, I think wanting the fix to be quick was unrealistic. However, despite the controversy, I'm personally glad to see wolves back in Colorado.
Still a Good Thing in the Longrun
Having wolves in Colorado again will still be good for the environment, although it may take longer than we originally expected. Aside from willow and aspen restorarion, issues like chronic wasting disease can be remedied by letting apex predators like wolves kill the sick animals and leave the healthier animals for hunters.
Sadly I haven’t taken any wolf photographs yet to share with this story. I have a plan to get some wolf pictures this spring and summer and will share them when I have them.
What are your thoughts on wolf reintroduction in Colorado? Did you support or oppose it? What challenges do you foresee in making it successful in the long run? I'm eager to hear your perspectives, whether you're in Colorado or elsewhere.
Other Stuff
Aside from wolves this week, I’ve got a new post on the website about how conservation works in Colorado. You can read it HERE. I had fun doing the research and putting this together. Hopefully you’ll find it informative.
If you’re enjoying this newsletter and you know someone else who might as well, tell them about it! I woud greatly appreciate it!
Have a great week! See ya in a couple.
Cheers
Heather Valey
Great article - everyone interested in wolves and nature should read!